


Drifting Away

by Kaoupa



Series: A Pink Planet [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-12 19:03:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21481303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoupa/pseuds/Kaoupa
Summary: Spinel doesn't get left in the Garden for six thousand years by Pink Diamond, but a lot has still happened in roughly two hundred. And even though they both remember the old days, they can't go back to them any more.
Relationships: Pink Diamond & Spinel (Steven Universe), Rose Quartz | Pink Diamond & Spinel (Steven Universe)
Series: A Pink Planet [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1276724
Comments: 16
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Steven Universe.

Time was fluid.

At least, it seemed that way.

To Spinel it was, at least.

Time could really only be measured by events, for gems.

And for Spinel, the only thing that had really happened in the last two hundred years was the point where the grass off the paths finished growing past her head.

But still, she was waiting.

She’d been told to wait, and so she would. Part of her - a lot of her - wanted to move around a little more, but she’d been told to stay still.    
  
She could probably do something soon, though. Maybe in another few hours or something?

Then, an event took place that hadn’t taken place before.

Something happened.

And though she couldn’t see it from where she was, she could hear it.

The sound of a Warp Pad receiving a gem from elsewhere.

Her Diamond was here!

  
  
  


Pink Diamond sighed as she looked out at the Garden. This place was… well, it was clear it hadn’t really been tended to, after she left. The plants here… well, honestly? Compared to some of the natural lengths some plants on Earth grew to, it was clear that the grass and other such things here were horribly undergrown.

Some of the things she had learned about on Earth would have probably overtaken the entire Garden by now, if they had been left unattended. That “kudzu” plant had given a lot of humans and Quartzes weeks of work removing it when they’d tried to get a sample and taken a few years to realize they had dropped some…

Well, she was here to say goodbye to this place. She’d be taking up some of the plants that were here from… whatever planet the other Diamonds had gotten them from, and she’d take them to a chamber on the Moon that was already-

“Pink! You’re back!”

Then, her plans to to have the Garden deconstructed went entirely out of her mind as a familiar pink figure bounded out of nowhere. 

“S-Spinel?!”

“Yuppers! Did I win? I mean, I stood still the whole time you were gone! Unless… did I lose? I mean, I moved when you got back just now…” Spinel’s face became rather downtrodden.

Pink Diamond just sighed mentally and hugged Spinel. “I-it’s okay. I… I got distracted. I… the other Diamonds finally gave me a colony, do you want to go see it?”

“Sure.” Spinel didn’t unentangle herself from Pink Diamond as she replied.

“Okay, I guess I can come back here later.” She decided quickly, already thinking about the many Kindergarten Quartzes on Earth.

She hoped Spinel wouldn’t mind spending time with them. They could certainly use the company.

Absently, she wondered what the different human tribes might think of her...


	2. Growth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are not the same.

“Oooh! Do a backflip!” 

Spinel giggled as the cheer came from the crowd of Amethysts and Rose Quartzes, pulling her legs up from the ground ten feet below and doing a somersault before she landed. These Quartzes were so easy to entertain! But then, they’d only emerged less than a century ago, and they’d never actually seen a Spinel before. At least, that’s what they’d said - she’d have to ask Pink the next time she saw her and see if she knew.

Just as soon as she came down. Spinel had been told that she couldn’t come up to the Moon Base until Pink told her it was okay to do it. Apparently, the other Diamonds apparently would drop on her like boulders if she stopped working for too long or got distracted at this stage in the colonization. Especially since she had to have a bunch of altered plans sent in within the next year, for all the new potential Kindergarten methods she had thought up, and the Beta Kindergarten had been delayed until she got  _ those _ finished…

Ugh. Her best friend was just way too busy to  _ be _ a best friend. And she was so busy (and the other Diamonds so restrictive) that she couldn’t even go cheer her up! The handful of times that Pink had called her, she’d had the glummest look on her face.

But it’d be over eventually. There were only so many Kindergartens she had to handle, and they hardly needed constant monitoring when they weren’t even implanted yet.

As soon as she got through everything. There was a ton of stuff to do - she knew that. But Pink would get finished one day. She was probably thinking about getting through everything right now.

Then, they could do things together just like the old days!

  
  
  


“Pearl, of the groups of humans that have been approached by us, how many were there again?” Pink Diamond felt a bit of genuine eagerness going through her at the thought of work. This was actually interesting, for once! Something new!

“The total number of groups, my Diamond, or the total number of humans in those groups?” Pearl asked, already pulling up the records she’d taken when her Diamond had gone down to Earth to try and connect with the humans in person. They seemed to react more extremely, in either case - some of the ones who had already turned them down had tried to destroy the “giant” upon seeing her (and been quietly noted by Pearl to be passed over for any future negotiation attempts. After the Quartzes had finished pummeling them). 

On the other hand, a few of them had bowed to her, when they saw her approach among the Rose Quartzes and Amethysts that had formed her guard.

Or prostrated themselves. Or tried to hug her legs before being unceremoniously shoved away by one of the Quartzes (or Pearl, to the surprise of everyone. Particularly herself).

But either way, when the other Diamonds found out, Yellow had ordered her back here without a single delay, and from what Pearl could tell, she had refrained from punishing her Diamond only because they’d actually managed to win over more than a dozen additional human groups within two planetary rotations of Earth.

“Both!” Pink Diamond grinned eagerly as she gazed at Pearl, waiting for the report.

“There are approximately 10 million humans on Earth, according to our current estimates, my Diamond.” Pearl began, reading off what she’d learned. “Due to our technology being… not yet optimized for determining separate types of organic at a distance, this error could be off by as much as…” She frowned as she read over the section of the report she’d scanned. Then, she sighed. “Potentially as high as 50 percent, in either direction. Hardly ideal.”   


Pink Diamond just shrugged. “Well, that’s not too bad. That’s not as many humans as gems on minor colonies, but that probably makes it more manageable, right? Isn’t that good anyways?”

“Indeed. At this stage, even with our vast technological advantage over them… they heavily outnumber us. Presently, we have… 34,659 Quartzes who have emerged from the Alpha Kindergarten. There is one, Amethyst Cut 5 Facet 8XM, who has yet to emerge… but she is, while somewhat of a loss, her absence will not greatly affect the colony’s growth or the current diplomatic missions to the human groups we have found so far.” Pearl recited, reading over the report again.

“Thank you, Pearl!” Pink Diamond cheerfully pulled up another page on her screen, one streaming videos from another chamber. She frowned. 

“Pearl, aren’t those plants supposed to have bloomed by now?”

Pearl pulled up a screen that matched her Diamond’s quickly, frowning at the sight before her. “They… haven’t, my Diamond? I am not an expert in plant care...”

Pink Diamond sighed. “We really need to figure out a way to accelerate the development of those food-bearing plants…”

“I’m certain we will discover a way one day, my Diamond!” Pearl replied, as hopefully as she could. 

“But we still have those two shipments that are supposed to be happening in two weeks! If we don’t get them all flowering by then…” Pink Diamond sighed, already remembering the issues in the past that had arisen. More than once, a group of humans had been hit by a rather unpleasant impact of their colonization - such as the wildfires started once by a careless Ruby (who had tried to scratch her own gem after seeing the consequences before she’d been talked down). Or the issues caused by the Prime Kindergarten - and those issues that likely would soon be resulting from the experimental Beta.

Or how humans reacted to not having enough food and water to sustain themselves.

She hadn’t known at first that the burials or burning them up were how they put their shattered at rest.

She’d vowed after seeing it and the weeping they’d done over their graves, that it would never happen again if she could do something to help them prevent it.

“Perhaps… we could have some Rose Quartzes go up to try and help coax them along?” Pearl suggested. 

“Pearl, you know what Yellow and Blue will probably say if I assign any Quartzes to the Zoo after we had all of the humans Blue sent there sent back…” Pink Diamond sighed.

“That it’s a waste of resources, my Diamond?”

Pearl hadn’t quite become independent yet, but she was making her way there. She sighed. “Well… what do we know about how plants grow on Earth or other planets?”

“We… hm.” Pink Diamond pulled up a screen and looked at the diagrams. She brightened up. “Good eye, Pearl! We actually haven’t had any research done for the plants here on Earth yet! I’ll have somebody look into it right away!”

Flushing, Pearl bowed at her praise. “Of course, my Diamond. Thank you. I will bring up the next set of inquiries from your Court for how we should proceed soon. Would you like to take some time to relax? It will take me several minutes to collect all of the data.”

“Please do. What is it now?” Pink Diamond sighed.

“Well, the plant-growing situation is as handled as it can be.” Pearl continued, as she scanned her screen. “The test we ran with several humans on artificial meat products has come back, and it seems we will need to continue our work…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah... this part touches on, well, how things have changed. And yes, Pink should probably actually talk to Spinel and tell her she doesn't want to play with her that much anymore. That is going to come later.


End file.
